Clementina de Jesus

Rainha Quelé

Clementina de Jesus da Silva was born on February 7, 1901 in the Carambita community of Valença, Rio de Janeiro state, though Cravo Albin gives 1902, and died in Rio on July 19, 1987. She was a contralto known as Tina, Quelé, Rainha Quelé and Rainha do Partido-Alto, a granddaughter of enslaved people who worked as a domestic worker for most of her life. From her mother she learned Jeje-Nagô chants, probably Yoruba, and jongos. Her family moved to Oswaldo Cruz, in Rio, when she was a child; she sang in a Folia de Reis group, took part in 1920s carnival blocos, followed Portela and later Mangueira, and moved to the Mangueira hill in 1940.

Hermínio Bello de Carvalho discovered her in 1963 at the Taberna da Glória, and she made her first appearance in O Menestrel with the guitarist Turíbio Santos. The show Rosa de Ouro (1964 to 1965) with Aracy Cortes, Elton Medeiros, Paulinho da Viola and Nelson Sargento toured Bahia and São Paulo, and the LP Rosa de Ouro (Odeon, 1965) followed. In 1966 she represented Brazil at the Festival de Arte Negra in Dakar, Senegal. Her albums include Clementina de Jesus (1966), Gente da Antiga (1968, with Pixinguinha and João da Baiana), Clementina, cadê você? (1970), Marinheiro Só (1973), Clementina de Jesus, convidado especial: Carlos Cachaça (1976), Clementina e convidados (1979) and O Canto dos Escravos (1982) with Tia Doca and Geraldo Filme. Brasil de Fato counts 13 LPs.

She guested on Milton Nascimento's Milagre dos Peixes (1973) and Chico Rei (1986); Milton said she was Africa in front of him. A tribute at the Teatro Municipal in August 1983 featured Paulinho da Viola, João Nogueira and Elizeth Cardoso, and in 1985 France gave her the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Her last show was at the Teatro Carlos Gomes in May 1987. The documentary Clementina (2018, Ana Rieper) and the musical Clementina, Cadê Você? (2013) honor her, and she received a posthumous Ordem do Mérito Cultural in 2016.